Orange Sierra Leone, which took over the management of Airtel on 16th July, 2016, has unveiled the strategic milestones of the company to the media at a press briefing in Freetown.
Madam Wonnie Katta, Head of Public Relations, Orange, noted that, since Orange arrived in this beautiful country, they have tried to understand the needs and values of Sierra Leoneans, adding that they can now connect them with the Orange brand.
‘’Our aim is to give our customer what is really essential in their lives and relevant to their locality with international standard,’’ Madam Wonnie noted.
The Public Relations Head chaired the session and presentations were made from the Marketing, Orange Money, Networks and Expansion, Corporate Social Responsibility, amongst others.
Felix, a representative from the Marketing Department, took journalists through the range of products and services the company offers, including their critical features and the different choices open to subscribers.
Madam Abibatu Baxter, Strategy Marketing and Partnership Manager, spoke on the features of Orange Money, noting that the financial service facility has provided over five hundred indirect employment for Sierra Leoneans. The service, she continued, is being increasingly used by International and National Non Governmental Organizations through the payment of salaries and other allowances to staff in remote areas.
Orange Money, she went on, is indeed a success story, citing their crucial role in the Ebola scourge where the platform was used to pay caregiver workers.
Orange Money, the first financial service product introduced by the company, has succeeded in making money transfers easier, payments for merchandise goods easier and payments for utility goods simple and quick, amongst others. The facility is safe, secured and runs on a twenty four hour basis, leaving audit trails thereby improving on accountability and transparency.
Daniel Fornah, Networks Planning and Engineering Manager, told newsmen that Orange, since the takeover the network in July, 2016, has spent over 55 million dollars in network expansion and investment in other sectors.
Mr. Fornah disclosed that 45 new sites were rolled out in 2017 and 42 new sites rolled out in 2018. He continued that modernization was also done in the passive infrastructure as follows: 105 generators replaced in 2017, 75 generators replaced in 2018 and 282 DC powers system replaced in 2017.
Modernization of the network, he noted, was also done on the Active RAN equipment as 250 sites were modernized for single RAN node in 2017.
The modernization and expansion program had also, according to him, included the launching of a new Data Centre and change of all core equipment which includes: New CS (MSC) core node that handles voice traffic; New PS core nodes, which handle data traffic to the internet.
The implementation of a new intelligent network platform for prepaid billing management led to the connection of 925 new localities. Hence thousands of Sierra Leoneans were able to access data and voice services for the first time.
At the Corporate Social Responsibility Platform, Orange Sierra has invested billions of dollars and leones in several projects relating to health care, the environment, education and the empowerment of women.
Since the 2016 take over from Airtel, Orange Sierra Leone adopted a total of over fifty (50) Ebola orphans and placed them in various SOS Children’s home in Kenema, Bo and Makeni. The company, according to the CSR manager, is spending Le 300 million leones annually to support the welfare of these kids.
Mr. Spaine also told newsmen that they were taken aback by the deplorable condition of othorpaedic and paediatric operating theatres at Connaught Hospital in Freetown just after the end of the Ebola scourge in 2015.
He continued that they were left with no option as a company but to undertake an urgent and immédiate rehabilitation of the facility with a view to create a free and spacious facility for the operation of children. This costed the comapny millions of Euros.
Mr. Desmond Spaine, the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, also cited the huge donations (IFTAH) given to Muslim communities and congregations during the month of ramadan and fasting and also support to the Freetown City Council environmental and flood mitigation efforts as well as the women’s empowerment programmes, among many other interventions.
Orange stands out very clearly of having committed one million United States dollars over a five year period towards the President’s Educational flagship project and are also currently rolling out free ICT introductory training in coding for over 80 children between the ages of 9-16.
Madam Wonnie Katta also took the opportunity to disclose the Company’s commitment profile for 2019, citing major areas where they would invest. These includes a 24 million dollars investment to supporting government’s efforts at extending mobile networks to underserved and unserved areas, 4G network penetration, GSM penetration, improved mobile financial services, new businesses with a view to use mobile to support agriculture and education, etc and further invest in corporate social responsibility projects.